When planning my family's North Island driving vacation, I concluded we had one night to spend in the Lake Taupo area and debated whether to spend it in the city of Taupo, or at the south end of the lake in the much smaller village of Turangi. I chose Turangi for the opportunity to learn more about and observe the world famous trout fishing there, and the possibility of visiting the geothermal pools nearby. (If it had been summer, the neaby National Park would have been a major draw as well). If you face this same choice, I highly recommend Turangi.

Although the Tongariro River Motel wasn't my first choice for a place to stay in Turangi -- probably because Tripadvisor doesn't list it as being in Turangi, but rather Taupo -- I consider myself extremely lucky to have wound up there. Although there are motels and lodges elsewhere that I have rated highly on TripAdvisor for a variety of reasons (value, location, etc), this is a rare one that I am giving 5 stars because my whole... more